Glass packs- which are the best??

I have 12" Cherry Bombs on my wagon with 2" pipes with H-Pipe directly behind the trans tailshaft, packs mounted infront of rear axle, 2-1/2" x 30" bellflower tips, stock 390. Decent grunt at idle, sounds like an electrical storm crossed with a grenade factory burning down on the highway....its awesome! I got mine from an online roundy-round supply house for $8.95 each. Can't beat that.

On my '51 Ford Tudor I have 30" Smithy's on 1-3/4" pipe behind my flathead, which has a nice set of Red's Headers. Sucks bigtime, way WAY too quiet. I can barely get the car to rap out at all and at idle I have to sit there and listen to the lifters click and clack. I'm ditching the packs completely on this car as soon as I can and am going to run a full exhaust with no mufflers at all.

 

One of my friends swears by his Brockmans...but he got his FREE.....long story...

 

http://www.pertronix.com/exhaust_products/smithy.htm

 

thanks bro, ive bought some since this thread was active in 2005, but appreciate the follow thru..

 

I'm putting some semi-new Cherry Bombs on the truck. These do not have louvers inside like some glass packs but have dimpled holes, about 85,000 of 'em. I'm guessing there is no front or back direction to these?

I like Flowmasters but miss the glasspack sound, what the hell is wrong with me?

 

Ditto on that. They are the best and sound great. Traditional as you can get, too.

 

Well, it's an interesting topic, so it can keep coming back.

I really like the Smithy sound on a flathead.

Let me ask a question: if a muffler is longer, will it allow not as many short wavelength (higher frequency) waves through? Or: will a longer muffler, other things being equal, be a deeper sounding muffler?

 

Lol, I had a '70 Torino with 351 Cleveland and burnt glass packs. Sounded bas ass!!

 

I dont know if you guys down in the States can get them but Up North(Alberta Canada) we run Blue Bottles they are a glass pack, i havent heard a louder muffler lol. i had them on my Pu witha sbc and 2 1/2 pipes and it hit 139 dbs on a db meter. Beat out a Straight piped 50 Ford witha LS1...lol My 89 Chev Farmtruck 350 TBI. This was pre-hotrod stage. When i was 16 and though Flashy wheels and Shiny paint was Cool

 

I like my 24" Thrush muffler,on my 4 cyl. it is nice and racy sounding.I made the mistake of trying to make my own muffler and it was a beautiful - ultra loud wreck.

 

Cherry Bombs, nuff said

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167708&highlight=glass+packs

 

There's only one name for great sounding mufflers.....Porter Mufflers!

Wolfie

 

BLUE STREAKS have an awesome tone to them! thing is when i got my exhaust redone the shop no longer carried them. i don't know if the company stopped making them or the store's supplier stopped carrying them, and the shop was just as curious as i was

 

8BA thru headers, 24" no-name glasspacks, 2 1/4" pipe.

Makes me tingly in my uhoh parts!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkrnY9daj4w

 

I had Blue Streaks on my old Camaro, sounded really good, crackle-y mid throttle on. I have some un-known brand glasspacks for my Olds. The main difference I've noticed with glasspacks besides length is that some, like purple hornies and blue streaks, have a louvered core and some, like red-hots, have a perforated core. I think the perforated ones are more raspy sounding, but don't quote me! I kinda want to try strait pipes, might do that and add the glasspacks later if I don't like it.

Later- John

 

Thrush on my 60 Galaxie
Noise only when I request it? Actually adjust the Mellow Tone with My Gas pedal.

 

I like Thrush-but you could get creative and find yourself an old farm tractor muffler, better sound and "dirt" cheap!

Winged Avenger
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me
then a Frontal Lobotomy"

 

I like the heavy bottle type mufflers like cherry bombs or mellow tones. They seem to last longer for me.
IM running some mellow tone steel packs now and they sound great on my 8BA with duals.
Nice rumble at idle but pop and crack when IM at speed and let off.

 

guess ill chime in and say my 51 Buick w/ straight 8 motor is running 2 cherry bombs, second exhaust was cast welded off the manifold and people have asked if i swapped motors cause they do sound tough, not supper loud, but tough.

i also just installed 1 cherry bomb in my buddies 51 Fleetline that was running a straight pipe all the way. Sure compared to the straight pipe it sounds quite, but i like it cause its more than tolerable at normal driving but when you get on it it sounds good.

oh yeah and you cant beat the availability and price on the Cherry Bomb.

 

Cherry Bombs, no doubt

 

Im surprised someone hasnt told you not to use glasspacks because they arent steel.

 

I used to have repro 22" Smithy's, but didn't like the thin sheet metal and the toy-like clapping sound from the tiny 1-3/4" inner tube with too many restricting louvers.
I cut them open, shortened them and removed the glasspacking, but there was little difference, just more low end resonance.

The famous originals were very different with a wider inner tube, smaller slotted louvers and steel shavings for packing.
Totally different sound absorption and resulting tone.

Brockman Mellowtone 12" or 17" steelpacks are my favorite mufflers, you can buy today.
Bullet style 24ga steel with carbon fiber packing and only 6 rows of spiraled louvers. These guys know how to make good mufflers!

Gives the closest to straight pipe sound but without any of the obnoxious noise and dB assault a straight 6 makes without muffs at high rpm.

 

Cherry Bomb was just here at work doing a presentation on the selling features of each of the mufflers they offer and air flow was one of the things that they shared. For all of their straight through design the flowed mid pack of all their offering. One intersting thing about their glass pack is that it actually has some technology in it that I was not aware of such as;
1. a floating inner core that eliminates the "tink tink" sound you used to hear when you turned the car of and the muffler cooled down.
2. They are powder coated red and not just painted.
3. The core is self has holes along it instead of a series of punched louvers like the old ones use to use which hurt flow and screwed up the exhaust flow.
4. The packing is not longer fiberglass so the old "put a hose and fill it with water when hot" trick wont work with these anymore. For better or worse the just wont get much louder that when they were new.
When I was looking for glass packs for my big block I was concerned about flow. The largest purple horney or smitty's I could find was 2.25 inches (I think) while both Cherry Bomb and Dynamax make a 3" inside diameter center. You have got to remember that when you buy a glass pack the has the heavy louvers hanging out in the gas flow path you effectively reduce the inner diameter of the pipe.

 

Great info - Thanks.
Yes, obviously a perforated inner tube and diameter equal to the pipes is best for flow.

Glasspacking nowadays is a lot different than the old ones had.
More sound absorbent and lasting much longer, as they are water and moisture resistant.

I like the sound that louvers make, if they are not too many.
Especially when decelerating in gear it just adds another cool sound to the whole range of sounds louvers make.
Some reverse them to get additional restriction and the sound that comes from that.

Perforated inner tubes are more linear, smoother and turbo muffler like sounding. Maybe better suited for V8 motors.

The location of the muffler and how long the tail pipes are also greatly affects the sound.

 

I had a Hush Thrush on my 66 Olds Dynamic 88 425 Rocket...went for some new tires and the dude driving it in onto the hoist tried to upsell a new exhaust.....but I had put it on plus a bunch of new pipes a week before, he told me I needed a new muffler then turned around and looked underneath..."Oh" he said. HA!

 

Purple Hornies Just because of the name

 

I love the real cherry bombs, even on this old four cyl they sound great. converter accidentally got ripped off years ago on one of those parking lot dividers,long story,but with a straight through exaust and a 12 inch cherry bomb,has a really nice sound. I also think the bigger the displacment,the lower the sound, since an engine is a big air pump,the volume of air coming out the exaust has a huge effect on the sound. some people say there is no difference,but i can hear a big difference between a fuel injected and non fuel injected car.

 

I'm about to have Thrush Glasspacks installed on my 225.

 

I really think that cherry bomb glass packs are the best ones. It is the one I am using right now.